Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.4

Clement of Alexandria · Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? · ca. 190–210 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: God desires mercy and the sinner's repentance, and will wash scarlet sins white as snow.

Greek text · Stählin 3:185

διὸ καὶ κέκραγεν· »ἔλεον θέλω καὶ οὐ θυσίαν· οὐ βούλομαι τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὴν μετάνοιαν· κἂν ὦσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν ὡς φοινικοῦν ἔριον, ὡς χιόνα λευκανῶ, κἂν μελάντερον τοῦ σκότους, ὡς ἔριον λευκὸν ἐκνίψας ποιήσω.«

English · Claude translation

That is why he has cried out: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I do not desire the death of the sinner, but his repentance. Though your sins be like scarlet wool, I will make them white as snow; though they be blacker than darkness, I will wash them and make them like white wool.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:185 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae, Quis dives salvetur, Fragmente, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 3 (GCS 17, 1909), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1909); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation combines Hos 6:6 (Matt 9:13), Ezek 18:23 (33:11), and Isa 1:18, with “blacker than darkness” added.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 39.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/39/4/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 39.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/39/4/).

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